The Man from Dyton Colony
by Brightness Wordweaver
Summary: The TARDIS strands the Doctor and Donna on a Firefly-class ship in the 25th century. Why has the Doctor never heard of Reavers, and how are they connected to the "slightly psychic" River? Rated T for eventual (inevitable) mixup of DW "companion" vs. Firefly "Companion".
1. Chapter 1

Donna yelped and hit the floor just in time, as a large mallet flew through the air and slammed into a pillar behind where she'd been. The Doctor had been banging on the TARDIS console with it a minute ago, but had lost his grip as the machine took a particularly wild swoop. Over the past several months, Donna had gotten used to bumpy rides, but this was something different-something wrong. The Doctor wasn't in control. As far as he'd been able to figure out, the TARDIS was flying itself.

Or, as he'd put it, flying _her_self. Donna still wasn't sure why he said it that way.

"What are we going to do?" she yelled over the chaos.

"Just hang on tight to something! Once we land I'll try to sort things out," he called back. The TARDIS made another sickening lurch, flinging Donna into the pillar, and she wrapped herself around it, closing her eyes and waiting for it to be over. This had been happening too often lately…

...

Mal Reynolds ran down the stairs to the cargo bay two at a time, letting himself almost relax for the first time in days. They'd just pulled off a good job, the Alliance was leaving them alone for a change-even Jayne was behaving himself. Maybe they'd get a few days without anything going wrong.

Or maybe not. Because Mal wasn't sure what that flashing, grinding _thing_ was, smack in the middle of his cargo bay, but he figured that "something going wrong" wasn't far from the top possibility. He jogged around to the comms panel. "Zoe, Jayne, get down here. We got some unusual activity."

When he turned back around, though, the flashing and grinding had stopped. Instead, there was some kind of blue wooden crate in the middle of the floor that he'd never seen in his life. Judging by the way Zoe's and Jayne's pounding footsteps on the stairs stopped abruptly, they were as surprised as him.

At around this point, Mal noticed the crate had a door, because it swung inward and a couple of people stepped out. The man was tall and lanky, with a long brown coat and a shock of hair that hadn't seen a comb in awhile. Could have passed for a normal traveler, if it weren't for the suit underneath that coat practically screaming "Core planet". The woman with him was harder to pin down to one class of people, but she had red hair that almost hurt to look at. They both looked banged up, like they'd been in a fight, and they were looking around sort of dazed like they didn't know how they got there.

That didn't stop Mal from cocking a gun in the man's face.

The man jumped back, his hands in the air. "Whoa! Hello! So we're doing guns, yes, no need to shoot us, we're just passing through." He had a sharp accent reminiscent of Badger's, like someone off Dyton.

"Yeah, passing through busting into our cargo bay on your way to getting spaced," Jayne muttered.

The stranger glanced over at Jayne and seemed to file him away for reference. "No, no, that really won't be necessary. If you'll just let us, er, go back into our box, we'll be on our way, no trouble at all."

The red-headed woman caught his arm. "Um, Doctor, are you forgetting the bit where the TARDIS _isn't flying_?"

"No, Donna, I'm trying to keep them from blowing our heads off till I figure out a plan," the man-a doctor?-said through his teeth.

Mal tightened his grip on the gun. "I don't know where you two think you are or how you got in here, but I would take it as a kindness if you would explain yourselves before I prematurely decide you're a threat."

"Captain, what exactly is this?" Zoe's voice came from behind him.

"S'what I'm trying to find out."

The one called a doctor attempted a conciliatory grin. Mal wasn't amused. "So what is this, some experimental Alliance thing? Didn't know the Core planets started having colony folks do their dirty work for 'em."

"Alliance...Alliance...oh, no! No! We're definitely not with any kind of government-we're just...traveling. Yes, traveling."

"Not going anywhere in particular, mind you," the woman added.

"Right, just...sort of popped in by mistake." The grin again.

"Still doesn't explain why there's a big blue crate in the middle of my boat that wasn't there a couple minutes ago," Mal said evenly.

More pounding footsteps on the stairs behind him. "Captain, we got a situation," Wash called. "Hey, whoa, what is that thing?"

"Now ain't the time, Wash," Mal said.

"Um, no, it kind of is, Mal." Wash was sounding more stressed than usual.

Mal took the risk of turning around; Zoe and Jayne had the strangers

covered. "Tell me quick."

Wash was pale and a fine sheen of sweat shone on his upper lip. "Reavers."

...

Donna was used by now to that weird feeling you got in the TARDIS, like time was off somewhere else and had left you in a different space. And she'd got used to the different feeling of stepping out and being in a completely different time than the one you left, which was always a little disorienting. But this was something completely different, leaving her with no sense of where they were. For some reason, a man was pointing a gun at them and seemed to think they were breaking in. (Which, all right, maybe they were a bit, but the Doctor had always talked them out of it before.) And now this man in a too-bright shirt was saying something about Reavers, and everyone had frozen like their nightmares had come to life.

Normally, that wouldn't bother Donna, because saving people from their nightmares-come-to-life was what the Doctor did best, but if he was having trouble calming down these people with guns, would he not be able to save them either?

The one who seemed like he was in charge-Mal, they'd called him-didn't stay frozen long. "Are they coming after us, or just waiting around?"

"Heading in our direction, but I don't think they've spotted us. They'll be able to pick us up any minute now, though."

"Motherless goat of all motherless goats." Donna wanted to laugh but didn't. "Wash, get back to the bridge, try to get us out of here 'stead of hanging around like sitting meat. Do it quiet like, though, no need to pick up trouble if there's no need. Jayne, Zoe, start arming the crew-no, Zoe, you take care of these two. Get 'em locked up in one of the empty rooms, then come get ready to defend the ship. We don't go down without a fight, got that?"

"What's going on, what are Reavers?" Donna hated how panicked she sounded, but she couldn't help it. Nothing was the way it should be. The TARDIS had gone wrong and everyone was barking mad and now there were _things_ coming.

The big stubbly one that had wanted to "space" them gave a short, sharp laugh. "Where you been that you don't know about Reavers? Even on the Core planets they can't be that dumb."

"We'll figure that out later if we survive," the woman called Zoe said. She grabbed Donna by the shoulder and prodded the Doctor in the shoulder with her gun-not in a threatening way necessarily, but in a move-it-right-now sort of way. The Doctor jerked away and moved a few steps off, hands still raised.

"No, hang on, tell me what's going on and I can help. I promise."

The commotion had drawn more people, looking down on them from a catwalk: a woman in a silk kimono, a girl in a pink shirt and coveralls, a young man in formal clothes holding onto a girl in a flower-printed sundress, an older man with frizzy white hair pulled back behind his head.

Mal ignored the Doctor and focused on the onlookers. "Just some unexpected guests, no need to worry about them just now. We got some other trouble coming our way-Zoe, get them out of here!"

Then they were both being half-shoved, half-dragged up the stairs and past the new people, past something that looked like a sick bay, and into a small, bare cabin. Zoe tried to shut the door on them, but the Doctor blocked it with his foot. "Tell me, what are Reavers?"

Zoe's face was expressionless and her voice was hard. "Reavers are things that used to be human but aren't. They prey on any small ship they come across, and torture and kill anyone on board. If you're smart, you'll stay very, very quiet if you hear any fighting, and maybe you'll get lucky and they won't be hungry enough to come looking for you." The door slammed and Donna heard the lock click.

"Doctor," she said in what she hoped wasn't a pathetic and small voice, "please tell me you know what's going on."

"Well," he said, not looking at her and rummaging in that ridiculous coat, "we're locked in a small room on a spaceship, the TARDIS isn't cooperating, and there are bloodthirsty monsters and people with guns." He looked up, having produced the sonic screwdriver and looking ridiculously pleased with himself. "So just another day for us, right?"

Donna couldn't help it. She had to grin back a little herself. "Right. Breaking out?"

"Oh yes!"


	2. Chapter 2

What with one thing and another, Mal wasn't in much need of a couple of crazy people on his boat who could apparently escape from locked rooms and thought it was a good idea to barge into the bridge like they owned the place. He'd left Zoe with Jayne in the cargo bay, the clear point of entry if Reavers did board them, so it was just him and Wash, keeping an eye on that torn-up ship full of death.

Without looking over his shoulder, he said, "I ain't blessed with an overabundance of patience right now, doc. Specially not for folks with a death wish."

"Look, if you'll just listen to me, I'm trying to help." The Doctor shoved his way up by the controls and started waving a rod-shaped device slowly back and forth over the equipment, producing a faint whir and a blue light.

"Hey! Cut that out. What are you doing?" Wash tried to bat the device away, but the Doctor just kept on and turned to him.

"You. What did you say your name was? Wash?"

"Yeah, it's Wash, but . . . "

"Lovely. So Wash, tell me about this ship. Does it have shields, evasive maneuvres, cloaking devices, chameleon circuits, anything?"

Mal hadn't heard of half of those things, and judging by Wash's expression, he hadn't either. "Um, no. It's just a cargo ship, it doesn't really do anything fancy. Just your standard Firefly-class transport, little bit older than some."

The strange Doctor's face cracked into a grin. "A Firefly! Love a good Firefly. Haven't seen one of these in ages. Donna, that puts us somewhere . . . mid 2000s, I should think."

"Look, I don't know where you've been that you don't know it's 2517, and I don't really care. Now quit messing with my boat and get off the bridge."

"Hang on, hang on, so you've got a radion drive, yeah? Accelerator core?" The Doctor was completely ignoring him. Mal tried not to take this personally.

Wash answered. "Yeah, but Kaylee's the one to talk to about that."

"All right, I'll need Kaylee, then. Come on!" The Doctor shot for the door, just as Kaylee stuck her head in.

"Captain? Is everything okay? I thought I heard somebody call-"

The Doctor interrupted. "Kaylee? Right. Engine room-right now-come on, Donna!"

Without really figuring on why, Mal found himself running out of the bridge and after the Doctor, Donna, and Kaylee, headed for the engine room. He wasn't sure why-he needed to be on the bridge. It bothered him a little. Mal wasn't the kind of man to go running after people just 'cause they said to. But the Doctor was clearly the kind of man who people ran after soon as he gave the word.

Mal had seen that kind of man before, and he hadn't liked them much. They were usually men who got people killed.

...

Kaylee liked new people, as a general rule. They always brought exciting stories, tales of far-off places and busy lives. New people coming on the ship, like when they took on passengers, was one of her favorite things, somewhere between that new compression coil and the frilly dress she kept hung in her cabin. Under normal circumstances, she'd have wanted to find out all about this doctor and his lady friend-she could already tell their story would be even better than Inara's, or even Simon's, maybe.

But all of that was nothing once the Doctor barged in and started mucking around with the power/drive coupler like she wasn't even there, especially when she'd just finished getting it back in shape.

He had some kind of gadget out, which he said was a screwdriver but didn't look like any screwdriver Kaylee had ever seen. For one thing, it lit up blue, which was plumb unnecessary. That wasn't stopping him from poking around in the gravity drive with it, yelling out for spare parts and fooling around with the wiring. No, Kaylee didn't trust this Doctor one little bit. But somehow, she found herself handing him the parts he asked for, no questions asked, like it was the most natural thing in the world.

"All right, everybody, hang tight!" The Doctor gritted his teeth and jammed the not-screwdriver into the tangled mess of wires coming out of the poor gravity drive. Serenity gave kind of a whoop and a shudder, and then everything went back to normal. The Doctor stood up and grabbed his big brown coat from where he'd shucked it off, like he'd finished-but he couldn't be, because nothing was different.

The captain must've thought the same thing, because he spoke up. "Mind explaining just what you did to those engines, and why your blue glowy _fen pien_ is stuck up in there?"

"Oh, that's linked to my TARDIS-er, the blue box in your cargo bay, I mean; that's my ship. I've just gone and synced up my ship's chameleon circuit to your ship's power cells, so basically when the Reavers pass by us we'll just look like a piece of space trash or an asteroid."

Mal stepped closer. "You best not be lying to me. I ain't in no mood for someone sabotaging my boat and coming at me with made-up words."

The Doctor sighed. He sounded like Kaylee's dad would, when folks were being stubborn at the end of a long day. "Look. My ship's not working, so I'm effectively stuck on yours. Why would I try to sabotage the ship I'm on?" He looked around. "Doesn't anybody want to go see how much those Reavers aren't attacking us?"

...

The Doctor was worried, Donna could tell. He was acting like everything was perfectly all right, but she'd learned a good while back that that just meant what was worrying him was too big and awful for him to tell everyone. Any moment now, she thought, people would be clutching each other in terror and the Doctor would be making some great speech about how he would save them all, trying to sound reassuring and ending up anything but.

The ship wasn't big, not by TARDIS standards, so it didn't take long to get back to the bridge. The blond man, Wash, who seemed to be the pilot, was still there, only now he was making fish motions with his mouth.

"Wash, how we doin'? Talk to me," said the captain, leaning over to see the scanners. The bridge was getting a little crowded.

"I-I don't know, Mal. They were coming right at us, and then . . . they didn't. They just sort of went off a different way. They're long gone now."

Mal let out a long huff of breath before he turned back towards them. Donna wasn't quite sure what was going on, but she'd gathered that evidently the Doctor had saved this crew of people from some terrible monsters and hoped they'd be appropriately grateful.

"Well, now," he said slowly. "Seems like whatever you did saved our hides, so I'll refrain from chucking you and your crate into the black premature-like. Still don't change the fact that I'd appreciate learnin' your names and how you came out of nowhere."

"I already said: I'm the Doctor and this is Donna Noble. And we're just passing through. Our ship malfunctioned and we're temporarily forced to intrude on your hospitality, but we'll be off as soon as we can manage it."

"So you might say, but I've yet to see any kind of ship besides this one," Mal said evenly. "Unless you're referring to that blue crate in the cargo bay."

"Yes. That'd be it. Some . . . experimental technology, only the experiment didn't quite work out. Funny how experiments do that. We're from a little science institute, really out of the way, you've probably never heard of it." He pulled out the psychic paper, although these didn't seem like the type of people to be swayed by official IDs.

Someone behind them yanked the psychic paper out of the Doctor's hand. Donna spun around in tandem with the Doctor to see the pale girl in the sundress she'd spotted earlier holding the psychic paper and frowning at it.

A youngish man, dark-haired and nervous-looking, was trying to pull the girl back. "River, sis, maybe you shouldn't-"

"The paper's blank," the girl said, turning it this way and that as though curious. Then she seemed to notice her brother. "Simon. It's okay. They're not from where you think."

"Be that as it may, ain't nobody makes gadgets like you got without the Alliance having a finger in the pie," Mal cut in. "Now as much as I admire the color of your coat, I don't take kindly to havin' uninvited government flunkies on my ship."

"Well, obviously. I mean, clearly this is a smuggling operation of some kind, could tell a mile away. Not that I care," the Doctor countered. He blinked, and seemed to register something. "Hang on, did you say that was _blank_?"

The pale girl, River, circled around him and met his eyes. Donna had seen a lot of strange things since traveling with the Doctor, and had almost gotten used to running across things that would make a normal person hide behind the furniture. But this girl's eyes were just . . . weird.

"You're not from Dyton." She didn't say it like a question.

The Doctor was serious now. "No. No, we're not."

"You've flown a long way. So, so far and so many places, but never here before. Too much war. You hate it so much you can't hear the screaming." Suddenly she stumbled back, even though nobody had touched her, dropping the psychic paper as though it burned. The Doctor scooped it up, but she backed away from him. "He's too big-the ship can't hold him-he's everywhere all at once and there are too many-"

The man she'd called Simon ran and caught her. "Sh, sh, it's okay, it's okay." He looked apologetically at them. "I'm sorry, my sister says strange things sometimes-"

River's head snapped up, and those weird eyes met Donna's. "There's something on your back!"

"Who did this to her?"

Simon seemed to think the Doctor's anger was directed at him. "It was the Alliance," he explained, a tad defensively, as he held River down; she was fidgeting stiffly with her hands now. "A team of scientists, calling themselves a school for the gifted. I got her out and had to go on the run."

River broke away and ran off into the ship.

A pregnant pause fell as everyone took this in. Mal was the first to break it. "Well, I think we can all agree that they're not Alliance."

"What's the Alliance? What've they got to do with us?" Donna demanded. Being threatened and imprisoned was bad enough on an ordinary occasion-and this was turning out to be a rather extraoridinary occasion-but being threatened and imprisoned when you didn't even know why was rather tiresome.

"The Alliance is the interplanetary government at this time. There was a great big unification war a few years back; lots of people are still bitter. Right now, most of the scientific innovation and luxury are centralized in a few core planets loyal to the government-that's why they're so suspicious." The Doctor, as per usual, directed a quick, undertoned stream of explanation at Donna without anyone seeming to notice.

"Sir, why are we suddenly so sure about this?" asked the woman called Zoe, from somewhere in the back.

"Because if they were Alliance, Zoe, they'd've taken River by now, 'stead of asking questions 'bout how she got that way," Mal said evenly. "If they wanted us dead, they've had ample opportunity to make it that way, and they clearly ain't gonna stay locked up no matter what we do, Might as well let them do what they're gonna do, long as it don't do no harm."

Donna didn't see how this was going to be helpful, since what they wanted to do (as far as she knew) was to get away from wherever this was as quickly as possible. The Doctor, however, was way ahead of her.

"Right!" he declared, in the manner of a man getting down to business. "First of all, thank you. Second of all, we've got a problem. Cos I don't know what Reavers are-never heard of 'em. And I'm clever. I've heard of most things that there are out there."

"How can you not have heard of Reavers?" Mal countered, gesturing down at Simon. "Even the doc here knew what they were, and he was about as sheltered as you could hope to see."

"Yeah, that's why this is a problem. Those things, whatever they are, are wrong. They aren't meant to be here. So! I need access to a computer, a dataread, encyclopedia, anything. I've got some reading to do."

"I can help," Donna put in. Granted, reading space encyclopedias didn't sound that thrilling, but she thought it was about time she had something to do with the proceedings.

"Sorry, Donna, I'm afraid not. Too close to your own history," the Doctor interjected. "Look, try and talk with the crew, it could be useful later. There could be something else I'm missing. Now-anyone got information I could access?"

At length, Simon spoke up. "I, uh, have some things. In my cabin. I'll show you." He got to his feet and led the Doctor off. Donna was left on the bridge with several armed, suspicious smugglers.

"Well, isn't that _wizard_," she said.


	3. Chapter 3

"This one's in New Mandarin-I don't know if you'll be able to . . . ?" The ship's doctor held out a datareader with a string of characters on its leather case. Before the Doctor's eyes, the characters rearrranged into the familiar shapes of his own language. So the TARDIS translation matrix was still functioning, even if she had inexplicably stranded him and Donna on this rather odd ship.

"Shouldn't be a problem. Good lad." The Doctor took the dataread, tapped in a search, and started skimming. He looked up after a moment. "So aren't you going to tell me what happened to your sister?"

Simon blinked. "I thought you wanted to read."

"I can read and listen at the same time. Carry on."

"She's-she's really just troubled. It makes her say strange things sometimes. We all try not to worry about it."

"Except that you do," the Doctor said without looking up. "Because the captain mentioned that if Donna and I were with the Alliance, we'd try to take River away. Governments don't take people away by force just for being troubled, not in this era anyway. No, there's something else going on here."

"Why would I tell you if there were?" Simon asked.

"Because you're in over your head, and you're desperate, and I can help."

A long moment stretched out. The Doctor thought he could see it in Simon's eyes, a struggle between fear and mistrust, and longing to let someone else handle the problem he'd been carrying. All such human things.

"Like I said before, there was this school for the gifted," Simon finally let out in a long sigh. "River was brilliant-still is, I think, although I don't have any way to run tests. She'd never stay still long enough. Anyway, my parents heard about it, and it sounded like a great opportunity, so they sent her away. She was so excited."

"So where did you come in?"

"I'd just finished medical school when she contacted me, told me they were hurting her, hurting the other so-called students. Our parents wouldn't listen when I tried to tell them, so I paid to get her smuggled out myself. Since then, I've been running tests on her-I used to be a doctor, on Osiris. She . . . her amygdala's completely stripped. She hallucinates sometimes. We've observed that her reflexes seem to be faster than normal. And . . . we've been speculating that she might be psychic."

"Well, that would explain her reaction to the paper. And some other things." The Doctor looked up from the dataread. "You said your government did this to her?"

"We don't actually know. But we've both been wanted fugitives ever since I broke her out, so the Alliance must have something to do with it." Simon paused. "You said you were a doctor, right? Do you know-would you be able to help her, maybe?"

"I'm not a doctor of medicine," the Doctor clarified, continuing to scan the digitized text. "But I might have a chat with River anyway, could do some good. Hang on, did you say _psychic_?"

"It's just a theory we've been considering. Sometimes . . . she'll be able to say what people are thinking, or she'll know where I've hidden something without even having to hunt for it. She's kind of odd about the ship, talks about it like it's a person."

"Oh no, that last one's more common than you'd think," the Doctor reassured. "But a government taking geniuses, making them into psychics-tell me, has she gotten into any fights since she came on board?"

"There've been a couple of incidents. Why?"

"Something's going on here. Psychics don't become accepted in this region of space for another, oh, thousand years or so. And _Reavers_ . . . why am I blocked on this?"

"What exactly do Reavers have to do with my sister?" Simon asked testily.

"Maybe nothing. Oh, I really hope I'm wrong on this one."

Pounding footsteps sounded on the metal floor of the corridor above them. Simon went scrambling for the ladder, and, after a moment's consideration, the Doctor followed. He really hoped Donna hadn't gotten into a fight . . .

...

"So how'd you end up being a mechanic?" Donna asked. After casting about hopelessly for a minute or two, she'd decided to try the mechanic. Kaylee hadn't disappointed, proving eager to talk and friendlier than anyone Donna had ever seen. Perhaps she was making up for her crewmates somehow. The two women had ended up in the ship's galley, sitting at the scuffed table, as Donna tried to rack her brains for what the Doctor might possibly want her to find out.

"Oh, my dad sorta taught me. Said I had a talent for it. I used to help him in his shop, when there was work, 'cept there wasn't much work. So when the captain offered to hire me, I jumped right at it."

Donna thought of to her mum and granddad back on Earth. "And your mum and dad, they were all right with you going? I mean, my mum always wanted me to move out, but I don't think she meant going to space."

Kaylee's eyes widened. "Oh, no, they were real pleased. I had a bunch of brothers and sisters, you know, so it was gonna be one less mouth to feed. I send 'em home some of my pay when I can, to help out, but I don't really know how they're doing." She sat back. "What about you? You and your Doctor, bein' scientists, that's gotta be fun."

"Yeah, it is," Donna agreed. "He's not really my Doctor, not like you mean. I just travel with him, like a . . . " What was the word the Doctor used? "Companion."

"Oh! Like Inara," Kaylee nodded, like this somehow made sense. She seemed to spot somebody walking past the door behind Donna. "Oh, hey, Inara! You should come meet Donna-she says she's a companion too!"

Inara, it turned out, was the rather posh-looking woman in the kimono Donna had spotted earlier. No, posh wasn't quite the right word, she decided, rethinking as the newcomer drew closer. More like . . . exotic.

"Oh, really? What House?" Inara asked, sounding genuinely curious. Donna hadn't the faintest idea what she meant. Should she play along and pretend she belonged in this century? "I know it can't be Madrassa; I still keep in touch with people there."

It was no good. "Uh, I'm not with a house, really. It's just me and the Doctor," she said nervously.

"Mm, I see. An exclusive contract, then." Inara sat, with a gracefulness completely out of place in the dingy galley. "All the same, you ought to tell Mal. He'll make some remarks, but he'll still have to recognize your status. Although Jayne-"

"What?" An ox-like figure lumbered into the kitchen area, grabbed a can of something, and started fishing around in one of the drawers, presumably for a can opener. Then he seemed to notice Donna. "Oh, it's you. Still don't get why Mal didn' space you and that Doctor fella."

"You should be glad he didn't," Inara stated. "Donna, it would seem, is under the protection of the Guild."

"Well, ain't that special," Jayne grunted, plunking the can onto the table with a thud. "If you ask me, whorin' is whorin' no matter what you call it."

Understanding, temporarily suppressed, flooded in. "What was that, sunshine?" Donna demanded.

Kaylee seemed to misunderstand what the trouble was. "She's with the Doctor, not open like Inara."

Jayne grunted. "Huh. 'S a shame. I don't usually go for Dyton girls . . . but I mighta made an exception."

That was it. Donna stood so abruptly her chair fell to the floor, and slapped Jayne across the face. The big man yelled in surprise and pain and took a couple of steps backward. Kaylee and Inara were standing now, too, varying levels of shock written across their faces. In the corridor outside, Donna could hear running footsteps, presumably of people alerted by Jayne's yell. The captain, entering the room first, relaxed when he saw the scene.

"Jayne, what've I told you about hitting on things that hit back?" he called.

"I didn' do nothing!" Jayne protested defensively. "'Nara said that one was a Companion, so . . ."

Donna saw the Doctor entering at the back, just in time to overhear. She thought she caught an oh-here-we-go expression on his face-had he known this could happen? She marched through the crew towards him, face burning. He pulled her a little ways from the others, into the corridor.

"You might've warned me!" she hissed under her breath once she got nearer.

"Sorry," he muttered back. "25th century, prostitution gets legalized in the form of highly trained companion houses-sort of like Japanese geishas, only more so. Highly respected, in their own way-and not people you want to mess with, I'll tell you that."

"Never mind that," Donna cut in. "What do we do now? Go out there and let them think I'm your personal-"

"I know, I know, I don't like it either," the Doctor said, raising his hands defensively. "But, think-not knowing about the Reavers is one thing, but this is a major gap. You admit you don't know about this, they're going to get suspicious, and we've only just earned their trust. There's something going on here; that's why the TARDIS won't let us leave."

"You have _got_ to be kidding me. I don't even know anything about this world, let alone guilds and things! That other woman, Inara, she'll pick me apart in seconds."

"It'll be fine. I'll fill you in on what you need to know. Just tell everyone you're from a border planet-it'll explain why you're not up on technology and things. We'll have a good laugh about it afterwards."

Donna thought about it. On the one hand, letting everyone think, just this one time, that she and the Doctor were a couple, albeit in a somewhat different sense than people usually assumed. On the other hand, admit they were from a different time, putting up with the stares and the questions and suspicions about her sanity.

"No. No way."

The captain was approaching. "Sorry 'bout that. Jayne's gonna contain himself from here on out. Last thing we need is trouble with the Guild right now."

"Oh, no offense taken. These things happen," the Doctor grinned infuriatingly. He looked over at her. "Right, Donna?"

She really was going to kill him later. "Right," she said, giving her least sincere smile. "Sometimes they do just that."


	4. Chapter 4

Dinner on _Serenity_ was usually a relaxed and pleasant affair, usually involving laughter, banter, Jayne stealing somebody's food, and the occasional yarn. Simon, after long observation, had reasoned that it had to be that way, otherwise everyone would notice that the foodstuff they were ingesting was among the most horrendous substances devised by man. Therefore, the crew had developed a layer of mealtime joviality as a defense mechanism that ensured they stayed fed.

The mysterious arrival and even more mysterious continued presence of the Doctor and Donna hadn't brought down the usual mood much, but the two of them didn't seem much inclined to join in either. Donna was clearly struggling to keep eating the foodstuff, perhaps suffering under her own brand of politeness. Simon thought about telling her she didn't have to make such an effort: Wash or Jayne would eat her share if she didn't want it.

The Doctor wasn't even pretending, alternating between studying the people around the table and staring off into space. He hadn't asked to see the encyclopedia again, but he seemed bothered, either by the Reavers or by River's behavior or both. It was funny, how much he seemed concerned about River's problem. Of course, Simon worried about it all the time, but he had to; strangers usually just dismissed her as crazy and moved on.

He hadn't had the chance to talk to anyone but Book about the strangers. The Shepherd had been a little taken aback to learn that Donna was a Companion, too-"she doesn't seem like the usual type, somehow"-but was mostly interested in the Doctor, who he said was an enigma. Book had sat next to the man to try and talk with him, but the Doctor seemed to have even less use for Shepherds than Mal did.

Kaylee was desperately trying to pull Donna into the conversation. "What about you, Donna?" she called across the table as Zoe wrapped up a tale of outwitting an over-bureaucratic shipping agent on Parth. "You've gotta have some interesting stories, travellin' all the time like you do."

Donna glanced sideways at the Doctor, who didn't respond. "No, not like you're thinking," she said finally. "I mean, _really_ not like you're thinking." That was another odd thing: Simon had never heard of a Companion being so tight-lipped about her trade.

Kaylee looked mildly disappointed. "Aw, come on," she cajoled. "It doesn't have to be, y'know, confidential stuff. Just-things you've seen, out in the black."

Donna sighed, and seemed to relent. "All right. But you might not believe me. Doctor, would they believe me if I told them I've met aliens?"

The Doctor seemed jolted out of a train of thought, and turned to her. "What? Yeah, 25th century, they should've run into a few by now."

"You've seen aliens? You mean, not in a jar or anything?" Kaylee was entranced. "What'd they look like? Could they talk?"

"Wait a minute, why would they be in a jar?" Donna demanded.

"I dunno." Kaylee shrugged. The others were watching them now. "Little while back, Simon and I saw one at a fair that was in a jar, in a big tent. You could pay to go in and see. Remember, Simon?"

He did remember, with remarkable clarity. "Yes, the man said it was proof that the Alliance had been lying to us all about the existence of space aliens, but it looked more like a deformed cow fetus."

Now the Doctor was paying attention, with that focused look he'd gotten when talking about River and how he couldn't remember Reavers. "Hang on, hang on, did you say your _government's_ been telling you there's no such thing as space aliens?"

"That they do," Mal interjected. "Personally, I don't see that it matters much whether there are or there ain't. Nobody's ever seen one, barring what Kaylee and Simon're talking about. To my mind you can believe in them if you want, so long as it don't interfere with your doing what's needful. 'Course, Alliance's got to have a say on even something as _tian di wu yohn_ as that."

"And, just to clarify, you've all been flying around on the edges of colonized space for however many years and you've never encountered a non-human life form?" the Doctor pressed.

"Believe that's what we've all been saying; why does it matter so much to you?" Zoe said levelly.

The Doctor leaned back in his chair, raking a hand through his hair (which didn't need raking). "Argh! There's something wrong here, it's big, big, what am I missing? You lot should've encountered at least a few species by now, by sheer odds if nothing else. Think!" He stood, making everyone jump, and pointed. "Donna! Big spacefaring civilization, just starting out, why would a government want everyone to think aliens don't exist?"

The red-headed Companion shrugged. "I dunno...maybe they're trying to keep people safe?"

"Possible. What else?"

"Maybe...borders. They want to figure out how to maintain borders first."

"Possible. What else? Anyone?"

"Mebbe they want to conquer the aliens all quiet-like, and then move onto their planets," Jayne commented with his mouth half-full of protein stew.

"Possible but unlikely."

"Perhaps it's about controlling ideas," Shepherd Book put in. "An alien civilization might espouse a philosophy dangerous for humans to embrace-or perhaps contrary to Alliance codes."

"You mean like, an alien race that wants humans to join a suicide cult?" Donna asked. "Doctor, is that a thing?"

"Not really, but good point nonetheless. What else?"

That had given Simon an idea. "What if...the aliens were friendly? Then they might let humans go with them to live on their planets, or, I don't know, give them technology. If a ship had the right equipment, or even a border planet did, they might be able to escape Alliance control."

"Be like the war all over again," Mal mused. "But this time, we'd have a half-decent chance of winning."

The Doctor spun around to look at them. "You," he said, pointing at Simon, "are good. You, captain, are probably the embodiment of why your government doesn't want alien contact."

"Oh, don't give me that _joo fuen chse_," Mal shot back, standing as well. "Don't ever. You clearly weren't there in the war, and I'm not about to enlighten you 'cause there's civilized folks here. But if there were weapons out there that could've brought the fighting to a swifter end and a better one, you bet I would take 'em."

"Bigger weapons don't end wars faster, Captain Reynolds," the Doctor said softly. The tension between the two men condensed. "They just leave more people dead afterwards."

"That would've been hard to do," Mal said shortly.

As the silence stretched, Kaylee tentatively reached a hand into the air. "So...is there aliens, or ain't there? And was Simon right about, you know, why the Alliance would want 'em a secret?"

The Doctor seemed about to answer, but at that moment, Simon was distracted by something in his peripheral vision. A moment later, there was a crash as River jumped abruptly from her chair, bumping into the table and rattling dishes. Before he could catch her, she sprinted out of the room, towards the cargo bay.

"River!" Simon called helplessly, getting up to pursue her. Kaylee was already on her way to the door.

"She says I need to come see!" was the only response from his sister.

For some reason, the Doctor jumped at these words. Grabbing Donna by the hand and calling out, "River! I really wouldn't!", he shoved past Simon and joined the pursuit. Sighing, Simon prepared to go deal with another incident.

...

Hearing voices was nothing new for River. It happened all the time, although they were louder and clearer when she looked someone right in the eye. Being at dinner was bad because everybody's real voices got mixed together with the voices only she could hear, and it made things very confusing. Sometimes, she would say or do something strange just to make them all stop talking for a minute.

This time was different, though. She hadn't been looking at anyone, hadn't even been paying attention, and the new voice had been in her head. One moment, Simon was saying something about escaping the Alliance, and then it was _there_, feminine and cool and clear and somehow definitely _blue_.

_**Ah, now he's starting to get it.**_

_Who is? Simon? And who are you?_

_**I came with ****************.**_ An indefinite scratchy hum drowned out the end. _**Sorry. Psychic blockage. You know him as the Doctor. He, by the way, is the one who is getting it.**_

_You're not Donna. Donna doesn't sound like this._

_**I know. She is much louder.**_

_But you're in the back of her brain._

_**It's a long story. We've met before, briefly. I'm the one in the cargo hold.**_

_No. Ships don't talk. Only _Serenity_, and she only talks to Kaylee._

_**I'm not just a ship. I take the Doctor where he needs to go. Right now, he needs to be here, but he doesn't understand yet. I need you to help, so he can help you.**_

_I can't tell them. Can't say it. _

_**I understand. Just come down to me. Make them follow you. I will let you in.**_

_I don't know what's going to happen._

_**He never does either. Come see.**_

River jumped up from her chair, banging her knee on the underside of the table. It hurt, but she sprinted for the passage to the cargo bay before Simon could catch her arm. She could hear him calling after her. "She says I need to come see!" she yelled behind her. Unhelpful, yes, but the best she could do.

The closer she got to the cargo bay, the more she could feel it. Before, she'd thought it was just the Doctor, and some of it had been. But most of it was coming from the blue box.

_**That's right. Come.**_

Footsteps were pounding behind her, at least four people. The Doctor was calling out something to her, but the blue voice told her to ignore it.

_**Come come come.**_

River barely slowed as she approached the box, which she could now see had very definite doors on one side. There was a faint click as she hurtled towards them, and when she slammed into them they swung open easily, invitingly. She braced herself to hit the inside of the crate as she stumbled to a halt. But the collision never happened.

_**Smart girl. I knew you would do it.**_


	5. Chapter 5

The Doctor ran a lot. Life like his, it basically came with the territory. Admittedly, he was usually running _from_ things that were trying to catch him, not the other way around, but the principle was much the same. Several lifetimes of running had made him very fast, but this time, his quarry had the element of surprise. He could already tell he was going to be too late.

Desperately, he hollered out ahead of him for River to stop. There was no way he was all right with her going near his TARDIS. Psychics and TARDISes didn't mix well normally, but as unstable as this girl was, there was no telling what could happen. The energy might pulse through her brain and turn her feral, or kill her. She might fly away with it altogether.

If the Doctor were honest with himself, though, he would have to admit there was one simple, primal reason why he wanted River kept away from the TARDIS. It was his home, the only thing he had left, his sanctuary at the end of a day where everyone died. No one went in there without his express invitation. And if anyone could force or trick her way into a TARDIS, he had a suspicion it was River Tam.

As he'd feared, when he and Donna reached the cargo bay, the TARDIS was already stading with its door wide open. He could see River standing in the middle of the control room, quite still, with her back to him, partially blocked by Kaylee halfway in the door herself.

"No! No, no, Kaylee don't, please. River, come out of there!" Without breaking stride, he left Donna in the dust and leaped forward. Kaylee, startled, stepped out of the way-into the TARDIS. He hurtled past her and skidded to a stop.

"Your ship can talk," River informed him.

Kaylee looked like she might be going into mild shock. She looked at the Doctor and he braced himself for a wash of rawly translated Mandarin. Instead, what he heard was "Doctor, whyn't you say your ship was so pretty?"

"River? Kaylee? Stupid son of a drooling..." Simon had come in behind the Doctor and skidded to a halt. For a second, he stood there, unmoving, then slowly folded his mouth closed.

Normally, the Doctor was all for the joy of discovery, but this particular moment was anything but normal. "All right, everybody out, right now; yes, I have a lot of explaining to do-don't touch that!" He lunged just in time to block River from the console.

The girl didn't back off, but looked him right in the eyes. "She needs you to tell them something. She needs you to understand. The blue voice."

The Doctor took her gently by the shoulders and started steering her towards the door, only to find his way blocked by more people. Mal and Zoe were inside, with Jayne right behind them. Over their shoulders, he could see Inara, Wash, and Book coming up, with a direct line of sight in the door. Everyone had seen.

Fine. Might as well do it here.

"So clearly you've got some things you ain't been telling us, Doctor," Mal said calmly, but with one hand on his gun. In the back of his mind, the Doctor kicked himself for editing out the temporal grace feature a couple of lives back.

He let go of River and held up both hands. "Yes. I can explain. The reason I was surprised you hadn't met aliens...is because this ship is alien."

"What about you? How'd you get it?" Mal prompted.

"I'm a Time Lord, yes. An alien."

"What about her? Is she an alien?" Jayne asked from the back, jerking a thumb at Donna. "Do aliens have Companions, too?"

Donna, fighting her way through the press of people at the door, gave Jayne a murderous look. The Doctor ran a hand through his hair. "No, Donna's human." He thought about explaining the unfortunate terminology confusion, but settled for saying. "She's not my companion in the usual sense, no." He surveyed the faces of the nine crewmembers now crowded into his home, their expressions ranging from skeptical to guarded to delighted (Kaylee). River just looked impatient, like all this was wasting time-as if she hadn't created the situation in the first place.

"What I told you before is true. I didn't mean to come here; my ship brought me. She's...kind of got a mind of her own. I don't wish you any harm. I'm just a traveller, a tourist. So's Donna."

He surveyed the group. Kaylee cautiously raised her hand, as though in class. "Can I-is there any way I could maybe...see the engines?"

The Doctor couldn't help but smile. "We'll see." Kaylee's expression was like a child's on Christmas.

Simon spoke up. "Doctor, it's one thing to say your ship has a mind of its own, but I think we'd all like to know why my sister claims it's _talking_ to her."

"They needed someone to cut the cake," River said quietly, making everyone jump. "Everyone wanted to find the shiny ring in the crumbs. But they took the ring away and there was only a drop of lead."

Silence fell. The Doctor's mind was racing. Psychics and Reavers and oh he was getting old and thick...

Jayne clearly trying to break the tension, gave a little snort. "Can't see why the Alliance was so keen on psychics if they're gonna spout a bunch of moon-brained nonsense."

Something clicked. "Wait, did you say _psychics_? As in more than one?"

A pause, like a collective blink of disbelief. Finally, from Simon: "Yes. I thought I'd said before, but...the Alliance had a whole academy set up as a cover for what they were doing. I'm fairly certain that there were more than just River, but-I could barely manage to get her out, let alone-"

He could see it all, for just one second. Reavers, dark shadows on the edges of known space, keeping sane people at home on the ground, where you could control them, make them believe anything. But these people weren't sane, they were full-on _mad_, and they weren't the only ones. All this exploration, someone should've made contact by now-there were plenty of species close enough. So what was to prevent people gallivanting off out of your reach, or turning strange new weapons against you? You needed someone very good, several someones, out there in the black, who could spot the strange, the unusual, the dangerous. Someones who could stop first contact before it began, and clean up afterwards.

"C'mon!" he yelled, catching everyone off guard again. "Think! Who on this ship was the first person to know I was an alien? Anyone?"

Wash, who had till recently been gazing at the console of the TARDIS with something akin to envy and longing, was the first to speak. "River. On the bridge, after the Reavers left. She had that fit, and..."

"Exactly. Everybody else knew there was something strange going on, but you all tucked it away, came up with a perfectly good explanation because the truth is just too impossible. But not River Tam."

Simon gave a little intake of breath. "They...they cut into her amygdala..."

"Right! Top of the class. The Alliance or whoever did this to her, made her what she is for one reason. They needed an alien hunter."

"That seems like an awful lot of trouble to go to, for such a specialized job," Book pointed out. Strangely, he was the only one besides River who didn't seem remotely fazed by the TARDIS. "After all, you are the only alien we've met or heard of, and most of us have been traveling in space for some time. Not to mention that the Alliance has other operatives for such...tasks."

"Not as good as River," Donna interjected. "Most places we go, people don't even notice. She figured it out in about a second, 'cos of what was in his head."

"Captain. Simon. Remember what we were talking about just now, about control. I almost didn't see it, but it's happening. There are millions of alien races out there, and you are meant to be flying with them, seeing all there is to see. But your own government is so desperate to keep that from happening that they've taken to rewiring people's brains in a desperate effort to do damage control."

He surveyed the faces before him. Not one of them looked surprised. They didn't even have the expressions of shock overload that he might have expected. An alien with a spaceship that defied physics as they knew it might be outside of what they knew, but a revelation that their government was this corrupt was far from news. More like a new verse of a very old, very long song.

The stillness was broken by a sharp bong, that seemed to proceed from the ship's comms. A few seconds later, it was followed by another, then another.

"Wash? Got anything you should be doing?" Mal said, turning to the pilot. Wash, looking a little pale, darted out of the TARDIS and started running for the bridge. As the Doctor searched for a tactful way to suggest that everyone get back onto their own ship, the bonging ceased, replaced by the string of rawly translated Mandarin that, the Doctor suspected, was going to sound like English to everyone standing there.

Eventually, the comm shut off, and then came on again, Wash's voice sounding tense with almost as much fear as he'd shown near the Reaver ship. "Captain, we're approaching an Alliance cruiser. Autopilot didn't catch it; I don't know why. But we've gotten too close. We can't get away without them hailing us."


	6. Chapter 6

Donna had always wondered why people said air could get thick with tension. As the door to the cargo bay opened, she thought she was beginning to understand. The airlocks were functioning completely as normal, but the tromp of Alliance boots on _Serenity_'s floor plating seemed to make the air harder to breathe.

In the ten or so minutes since Wash's announcement, the crew had worked faster than Donna would've guessed possible. Simon and River had donned EVA suits had been bundled outside-Mal said that was standard procedure for emergencies like this, that waiting out the encounter clinging to the hull was safer than hiding on the ship and potentially being caught. Several of the crates littering the floor had been shoved into nooks and crannies that seemed to defy physics in much the same way the TARDIS did. And, as if by mutual agreement, everyone who could had helped to shove the TARDIS out of the middle of the cargo bay and to camoflage it somewhat with a few stacked crates and some hastily draped netting.

"Doctor, if they've got alien-hunting psychics like you were saying, isn't all this a bit useless?" she'd asked, heaving a particularly heavy box onto a stack against the TARDIS door.

"They don't. Probably. Whatever they were doing worked on River, but she was brilliant to begin with. The kind of mind you get once in a generation, maybe." His face was tense with worry, Donna could tell, but also with anger at what had been done to River. "It's...highly unlikely that they'd have succeeded on anyone else. Probably just drove them mad. Or killed them."

The Doctor evidently believed wholeheartedly in the Alliance's lack of additional psychics, because he was standing right there with the crew and Donna when the Alliance troops came jogging in in their grey and purple armor.

Mal stood a little in front of everyone, holding what looked like a collection of documents, which he held out wordlessly to the grey-uniformed man who followed the half-dozen troops in. Donna privately thought the officer looked exactly like every mid-level military bureaucrat on every Star Wars knockoff she'd seen.

"We permitted to know why we're being detained like this, officer?" Mal asked with a clearly manufactured ease, as the man in grey rifled through the documents.

After a long silence broken only by the rustling of paper, the man looked up. "Our sensors detected an unusually potent energy flare coming from your ship earlier today. No legal technology is capable of such a flare, so we're required by law to investigate."

"How do you know it was our ship?" Mal asked, still with that veneer of politeness. It reminded Donna of the tone she'd used to use on a particularly thick boss when questioning his poorer decisions. "Only asking 'cause we passed a Reaver ship some time in the past several hours, and they got all kinds of unnatural stuff going on."

The officer gave Mal a patronizing look. "It wasn't a radiation flare, if that's what you're suggesting. Now if you want to keep your ship, stand aside and let us search it."

Four of the soldiers took off into the ship at a rhythmic jog. Of the two remaining, one herded the crew, the Doctor, and Donna to one side while the other started searching through the crates still in the open.

"What's gonna happen to us if they find the TARDIS?" Kaylee whispered, from where she was jammed between the Doctor and Donna.

"They're not going to find her," the Doctor whispered back. "Everything's going to be fine. I will get you out of this. I promise."

Donna had heard him say the same words to countless scared, cornered people. For her, they didn't mean much anymore-sometimes the Doctor was able to do what he said, and sometimes he wasn't, and sometimes he didn't know until afterwards. She'd gotten pretty good at telling which was which, and from the tone of his whisper, she was pretty sure it was the third kind. Donna didn't believe in the comforting words the Doctor always said, not like she had at first. She knew he would always live to fight another day, and that she probably would too, and that if you told enough people they were going to make it, maybe enough of them would believe it and fight to make it come true.

The soldier examining everything wasn't rifling and shoving, like Donna would've thought. He tapped, a certain quick rhythm on each and every object. Tap ta-tap, tap tap, tap. Over and over, on each crate and piece of equipment. He was approaching the TARDIS. Even with Kaylee between them, Donna could feel the Doctor tensing up.

Tap ta-tap, tap tap, tap on a pile of detritus shoved against the TARDIS's side. A pause, then moving on. Tap ta-tap, tap tap, tap, fingers drumming on what looked like a mutant refridgerator. A longer pause, then a shake of the head. Tap ta-tap, tap tap, tap on the corner of the TARDIS.

The soldier froze, resting his hand on the blue-painted wood. His head tilted, almost like he was listening. Then he reached up and jerked the helmet off in one quick motion. Long black hair tumbled out-the soldier was a woman, no, a girl not much older than River. She turned and smiled, sharklike, at the officer.

"This is it, sir," she said crisply. "Definitely extrasystemic. And..." She closed her eyes and placed a finger on the door of the TARDIS. Slowly, she turned around, finger still outstretched, until she was pointing directly at the Doctor. "...he's part of it. Or it's part of him. The others have traces, but they're not connected."

"Right. Well done, soldier. You may return to your quarters." The officer turned to the Doctor. "Unidentified member of a nonallied species, you are hereby bound by law. You'll be accompanying me."

The Doctor took a deep breath. "Right. First, I want to know what's going to happen to this ship and its crew. They've done nothing wrong, and I want assurance that they're not going to suffer." Donna wanted to yell, Don't go bargaining with him like a prat, you know he's up to no good, so tell him where to get off and let's go save civilization! But that wasn't the Doctor's way-he had to give everyone a chance, even generic bureaucrats.

"Are you kidding?" the officer snapped. "As far as I'm concerned, everyone on this ship is culpable of aiding and abetting. Captain, you and your crew are bound by law as well. You'll be coming aboard with me and your ship will be destroyed."

"Now hold on-" Mal started.

"I really wouldn't if I were you," the Doctor began.

"Cap'n, you can't let these purple-bellies blow up _Serenity_!" Kaylee cried.

Inara marched forward. "Sir, I'm a registered companion, and this ship is hired as my transport to a scheduled client. I have certain rights-"

"Not under these circumstances," the officer said dismissively. Then he seemed to reconsider. He gestured to the remaining soldier. "You there. Take this woman to gather her personal effects." To Inara, "You have five minutes to gather any items of value before I clear this ship."

Donna expected Inara to argue. Instead, the woman dipped her head in graceful assent and led the soldier into the ship. A flicker of amused pride seemed to cross Mal's face, quickly replaced with grim determination.

Time seemed to stretch. Donna finally edged her way past Kaylee to stand by the Doctor. "What are we going to do?" she hissed in his ear.

The Doctor didn't answer right away. Finally, he hissed back, "I'm working on it."

At this moment, a series of what sounded like shots echoed in the farther parts of the ship, in the direction Inara had gone. A soldier came fleeing onto one of the catwalks above the cargo bay, and collapsed with a crash, blood dripping from a hole in his body armor. Two more came pounding in at floor level.

"Sir, we've been attacked-" one of them said, right before Mal and Jayne both shot him, one in the leg and the other in the chest.

"Wash, go!" Mal barked, and the blond man took off running, presumably for the bridge. The officer tried to shoot at him, but only was able to take a couple of poorly aimed shots before Zoe's pistol cracked and the officer's gun fell to the floor.

"Get that one!" he grunted through clenched teeth. Donna had somehow ended up against the wall when the shooting started, so she only just saw the remaining unwounded soldier punch the Doctor, hard, in the stomach and drag him through the airlock. The officer followed. A roar, presumably from the engines, shook the ship and _Serenity_'s airlock slid closed, disengaging the ship from the Alliance cruiser's docks.

"Doctor! No!" Donna heard someone scream, and realized it was her. She shoved through the crew towards the airlock, stopping short before it and watching the cruiser diminish as Wash went for hard burn. The Doctor had been taken. The Doctor was captured by an interplanetary dictatorship bent on hunting down aliens, and she was stuck here without him.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: I guess I should mention: timeline-wise, this stuff is all happening between "The Unicorn and the Wasp" and "Silence in the Library" for the Doctor and Donna, and post-"Out of Gas" for the Firefly crew. Aaaand I'm sort of pretending the BDM doesn't ever happen, as will become apparent soon. Because let's be honest, we all want Wash to live.**

...

There was only so much staring out a sealed airlock and yelling that one person could do before finally sensing a certain futility. So Donna decided to jog up to the bridge and have a little talk with Wash.

"Listen," she said, in what she hoped was a firm-but-not-overbearing tone, "I need to find out where that cruiser is taking the Doctor. Is there any way you could, I dunno, try and track it? Or is it too far away by now?"

Wash shook his head. "Nope. If we were close enough to track them, they'd be able to track us, which, given that we're evidently carrying around a huge piece of alien tech, they might be able to do anyhow." He turned in the pilot's chair and took a more sympathetic tone. "Look. I wish I could help. If Zoe got taken by the Alliance, I'd be trying anything I could to get her back, and I'd honestly be in worse shape than you are."

Donna flushed. "No, really, we're not a couple. Why does everyone think we're a couple? It's just..." Heaven help her, she'd fallen in with a crew of scavengers; how was she supposed to explain this? "We're friends. The Doctor and me. And when I first met him, I was no one, and then I started traveling, and saving people, and it made me better, somehow."

At this point, Mal entered the bridge, looking unsurprised to see her there.

"Should've known you'd be trying to sweet-talk Wash into going back," he said. "Well, it ain't happening. We were lucky to get out of there in as good shape as we did." Mal halted and looked at Donna, seeming to evaluate her. "You got any kind of work you can do?" he asked.

Donna had a feeling that the _Serenity_ crew was not in need of a temp. "I used to be a secretary, sort of, back home," she said lamely. It was starting to creep up on her, slowly: _The Doctor is gone and you can't get him back and you're stuck here in the future and how will you live you couldn't even work the photocopier back home._

She pushed the thought back defiantly. _The Doctor will be all right! He always is! He'll figure something out with tinfoil and string and paste, and escape and come back here and everything will be fine._

"Was this on one of the Core planets, or closer to home? Might as well drop you on a world you're used to," Mal said, interrupting her internal battle.

_That'd be a job, and no mistake._ "I don't think that would work," Donna said cautiously. She knew the Doctor had said not to do this, but she wasn't sure what else to say. "The TARDIS, the Doctor's ship...it doesn't just appear different places. It's a time machine. I'm from about five hundred years ago."

She waited for shock, or a declaration that she was insane. Mal just shrugged, like it wasn't the craziest thing he'd heard today. "Sorry to hear that," he said briefly. "Earth's a little bit inhospitable at the moment, but we could see about finding you some kind of work anyways. Some of the mid planets have factories, that kind of thing. Farms, if you're more of an outdoor type."

This conversation wasn't going at all how Donna wanted. "Look, if you'll just help me get back to the Doctor, that won't be necessary. I know you can't fly back, but is there a shuttle, or something, I could-I don't know, borrow?"

"One woman against a whole Alliance cruiser, full of jumpy feds already on high alert? I don't think so." Mal turned to leave the bridge. "We're on a heading for Haven. Might be a good place to disappear."

...

The Doctor wasn't terribly worried about Donna. If she and the crew had been captured or killed, or were likely to become so, the officer who had arrested him wouldn't have been in nearly such a bad mood.

Some people might've been intimidated by the man's grumpy demeanor, but the Doctor had more or less made a career out of waiting till people were angry enough to make foolish decisions, and then letting them walk into their own trap. He was fairly sure, actually, that he could get out of these poorly attached handcuffs, evade the soldiers guarding him, and steal a shuttle to catch up with _Serenity_ without much trouble. But.

There was something going on here, something he was just beginning to fully understand, and it was stunting the human race. This galaxy should've been full of settlers colonizing everything in sight. Instead, someone, or a group of someones, had been so afraid of letting go of their power that they'd hurt people, lots of people, in a desperate attempt to contain their empire. That was their great mistake.

If this had just been about that tiny little war that Captain Mal and Company were so fixated on, he would've swanned right off and let everybody figure it out themselves. But now lines had been crossed, and he was going to have to stop some people, and that would take a little more time.

The thought occurred to him, rather comfortingly, that out of all the companions he'd had who could've possibly been in Donna's shoes right now, she was probably the best equipped to handle herself till he could find her again.

"Aren't you going to read me my rights?" he asked the officer a tad provokingly. "Or is that a thing of the past?"

He'd expected a barking command to shut up; instead, he got silence.

"Is that how it is then? Minimal contact with the prisoner?" the Doctor pushed. "Afraid I'm going to poison your mind with otherworldly ideas about justice and experimental ethics?"

Still nothing. Maybe he should try a different tactic.

"Come on. Can't I even get your name?" Silence, except for the tramp of the soldiers frog-marching him through the corridors of the cruiser. The tramping ground to a halt as another officer, clearly more senior, intercepted.

"Lieutenant," the new officer said sharply. "What is this? Some deluded Browncoat rat?"

"No, Commander Wilson, sir," the lieutenant said, snapping to attention. "The wunderkind sniffed him out. Looks like he's extrasystemic."

"Did she now. And where is the wunderkind?" the general said coolly.

"Medbay, sir. There was a slight scuffle pulling him out. We lost a few men, and one more besides her was injured."

"You left the crew alive? After they'd been exposed?" Commander Wilson's tone was not one to encourage thoughts of long life in his subordinate.

The lieutenant swallowed hard. "They don't know anything. They didn't even know they had alien tech on board. They had it stored like it was a regular crate."

It seemed like a pretty obvious lie to the Doctor, but maybe you had to be there. Commander Wilson seemed to buy it. "Just get a notice out onto the Cortex," he barked irritably. "No details, just say it's classified. I'll take this from here. You four, bring this man to the research bay."

The lieutenant marched away, and the four guarding the Doctor followed Commander Wilson at a crisp gesture from the latter, hauling their prisoner along into the bowels of the cruiser.

...

Donna sat in the mess, staring at the dinner remains abandoned in the mad chase after River that had started this whole thing. She supposed she ought to try and clean it up, make herself useful, but she hadn't the faintest idea where to start. Even with a simple chore, she was completely useless in the future.

River came wandering in, having shed the EVA suit from her earlier spacewalk, but wearing a slightly loopy grin. Donna wondered how much of the loopiness was normal, and how much was a side effect of having to cling on to the hull during Wash's mad getaway. She'd forgotten about the girl and her brother in all the confusion, and now felt slightly guilty.

"He's not going to come get you," River said abruptly, sitting down a knight's move away and picking at the abandoned food.

Donna was jolted out of her thoughts. "Of course he is! You don't know the Doctor; he can get out of anything."

"Not this time," River said with quiet certainty. "He's too big to fit through the keyhole."

"Excuse me?" Donna was not in the mood to deal with any more mad people right at the moment.

"There's too much of him. All the things that were and are and could be," River continued, as if she hadn't heard. "Planets and civilizations and wonders, and it swallowed him up and now he can't see himself anymore. Only the big things. He ate the cake and now he's too tall to get through the door to the garden."

"Look, I'm really tired, and it's been a long day. I'm going to just go ask the captain about a cabin..." Donna pushed her chair back and stood.

"The garden can fit through the door," River said abruptly.

Something caught on the edge of Donna's brain, like a faint _ping_, but she dismissed it. "The captain already said we couldn't go back," she said, turning away.

"Well, now," a deeper, calm voice said from the shadows. "I seem to recall this crew came back for him, once."

Shepherd Book stepped into the light.

"Isn't that right, River?" he said gently. "And there were two times that he came back to save River here, and Simon. He just needs the right reason."

Something connected, like a domino tipping over and knocking down an endless pattern of dominoes.

Kaylee, telling a story about the time the crew took up arms to rescue Mal from a sadistic crime lord...

The Doctor and Mal, arguing at dinner about big wars and little wars...

River screaming earlier about how the Doctor was too big for the ship, and maybe he was, too big for people just trying to survive from job to job, but who might just be small enough to save a man who would probably forget to save himself...

Donna Noble would've been the last person in all of time and space to describe herself as smart. But she had made it, after a fashion, as a temp in London, and you didn't do that without acquiring and honing certain talents. You had to be tough, and determined, and you had to be able to figure people out. You had to be able to empathize with them, a little, if only to gain a foothold.

(This, although neither she nor the Doctor quite knew it, was no small part of why he had sensed she should travel with him. Because River was right, sometimes the hugeness of it all gets to him, and it helps to have somebody there who understands the screaming people and can get down to their size and assure them that it really will be all right.)

Donna went to find Mal, following the sounds of someone rearranging the cargo bay to its original state of affairs. Jayne was helping him; Kaylee looked as though she had started helping and ended up standing by the TARDIS and performing a stroking activity which looked suspiciously like comforting it. Deciding she would figure that out later, Donna attempted to get Mal's attention, finally standing smack in his path so he had to halt and talk to her.

"So. That...cruiser thing, that's with the Alliance, yeah?" she said.

Mal tried to ignore her. She blocked him again.

"The ones you fought in the big war, right?"

The captain sighed and ran a hand through his hair-a gesture so Doctor-ish it startled her. "If you're trying to-"

"Only I was just thinking. Right now, wherever those people are out there, they've got the catch of their lives right now. Whole big system and they get to finally nab an alien. After all that time and money their bosses spent on psychics and everything."

"You going somewhere with this?"

"Well, not really, 'cause obviously we can't go back for the Doctor, that'd be...stupid, and all...heroic, and stuff. But if somebody were to, I dunno, help him escape. Well. That'd make all those soldiers, all the feds on that cruiser, look really, really stupid."

Something flicked in Mal's eyes, and she knew she had him.

"Especially if, you know, he got rescued by some little tiny ship that had no way of pulling that kind of thing off. Ever. In, like, a million years."

Mal muttered something low and vehement under his breath that Donna guessed was an imprecation. "Woman, you had better not ever turn to crime." Abruptly, the captain spun on his heel. "Jayne, might wanna consider leaving the more sensitive cargo outta plain sight for a minute here. Take a breather. I'm gonna go have me a talk with the pilot."

Donna, not quite believing what she'd pulled off, quietly sank down onto a box, watching the captain head up to the bridge. Up on the catwalk, River came at her wandering, shuffling pace, and Donna thought she was smiling at her. But at that distance, who knew? She could've been smiling at thin air.

...

_It worked._

_**Yes it did. Finally. I shouldn't push it that much with psychic nudges.**_

_You helped me say it. Get the words right._

_**Yes.**_

_Can you stay?_

_**No. I'm sorry. I wish I could help you. But the Doctor needs me more. You have Simon. He has no one.**_

_He has Donna._

_**For now. They never last long. He wears them out.**_

A flood of images, people River would never meet, flooded her mind, and she wept softly with their pain.


End file.
